1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit and an ESD protection device, and more particularly, to an ESD protection circuit and an ESD protection device using a trigger source to trigger a bipolar junction transistor to protect a circuit during an ESD event.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is a rapid discharge that flows between two objects due to the built-up of static charge. ESD may destroy semiconductor devices because the rapid discharge can produce a relatively large current. In order to reduce the semiconductor failures due to ESD, ESD protection circuits have been developed to provide a current discharge path. When an ESD event occurs, the discharge current is conducted through the discharge path without going through the internal circuits to be protected.
In the traditional ESD protection circuit, the holding voltage is much smaller than the operating voltage of the internal circuit. Since that, when the traditional ESD protection circuit is triggered on, it is easily latched up and cannot protect the internal circuit. In order to solve the latch-up issue, a stacked ESD device has been developed. Despite having a relatively high holding voltage, the stacked ESD device is formed by a plurality of gate-grounded n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) transistors connected in series, thereby requiring a large layout area.